Does Mehdi Hasan think it’s immoral to deport foreign sex offenders?

‘I don’t want these sexual offenders and violent individuals here’, said UK Labour MP and migration minister Mike Tapp, in a social-media video published on the weekend. Reinforcing this message enthusiastically in the caption, he wrote: ‘Deport. Deport. Deport.’

One might have thought that deporting foreign criminals was as uncontroversial as saying that the Earth orbits the Sun. Instead, some on the left continue to view it as morally comparable to extra-judicial shootings.

Mehdi Hasan, the British-American journalist currently plying his trade stateside, said of Tapp’s post: ‘This might sound like a Reform UK MP but he’s actually a Labour MP.’ He paired this with a facepalm emoji. In other words, Labour is aping the supposedly racist policies of Nigel Farage and Reform.

Hasan’s missive reminds us how detached large sections of the left have become from what were once considered to be basic moral instincts. Nearly 80 per cent of the British public supports deporting immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes. They have seen how illegal migration has become a route into the country not just for asylum seekers or economic migrants, but also for career criminals looking for a fresh start in the UK.

This is not a ‘dogwhistle’. In the past month alone, immigrants have been charged with or convicted of murder, gang rape and the sexual assault of a minor. Another migrant recently came to the UK promising to murder Farage. Hasan, who clearly spends an unhealthy amount of time scouring X for things to get offended and self-righteous about, must be aware of these cases.

There is nothing wrong with deporting non-UK citizens who are violent or sexual criminals. Nor is there anything wrong with deporting people whose right to be in the UK has simply expired. The days when the public or politicians could not say these things without being branded as ‘racist’ are thankfully over. Hasan better get with the programme.

Hugo Timms is an editorial assistant at spiked.